2A Wine Merchants, a shop and tasting room, is due in summer in the Third Ward

2A Wine Merchants, a wine shop and tasting room where the owner wants to bring restaurant-style hospitality to retail service, will open in summer in the Third Ward.

Customers will be able to try wines by the glass or share a bottle at retail price at a table, but owner Rob Levin is adamant that 2A won't be a wine bar. Its focus will be matching wines to customers' tastes while also selling some local craft beers and spirits "focused on small distilleries that are being honest to the craft," he said.

Most recently vice president of operations at F Street Group and a veteran of restaurants and hotels around the country, Levin and business partner Tony Bisciglia, another industry veteran from Chicago, expect to open the store fully by mid-July at 577 E. Erie St. The space, on the first-floor retail area of Hansen's Landing condos, previously was part of the Trinity Academy of Irish Dance.

2A refers to a second act (the men originally wanted to call the shop Second Act Vin Bodega, Levin said, but changed it to 2A Wine Merchants to avoid a possible trademark issue).

"It’s about the second act of life and really doing our thing as business owners," Levin said, "and starting over and working for ourselves for the first time in our lives."

2A also is the result of the owners doing what so many have done during the pandemic: adapting. Levin and Bisciglia originally wanted to open a full-service restaurant. "Then COVID showed its ugly face," Levin said.

The pandemic is a time of uncertainty, he noted, but one certainty has been retail beverage sales — they rose significantly. That led the partners to narrow the focus of their new business to their interest in wine. 

The wine shop's look, by Milwaukee design-build firm Three Sixty, is open and spacious in the front portion, Levin said, where the tasting bar will be along with refrigerator cases holding charcuterie, cheese, some wine and beer to grab and go.

The back room will feel like "walking into a wine library or wine cave," he said. It's designed to be darker and more romantic, and it's also where the majority of the wine will be displayed. 

The shop will have a dozen or so seats spread throughout the interior, including a small lounge area with LPs and two turntables. Outside, 2A would have a few tables; eight slips behind the shop on the Milwaukee River could attract boating customers.

The shop is designed to have a mix of lighting and finishes, so that customers can discover different details when they return, Levin said.

"We want to be more than a cash transaction," he said.

He also hopes customers will discover a new wine to try whenever they return. Glass pours will change monthly, as they'll correspond to wine club offerings. 2A also will pour spirits, such as bourbon, but only neat or on the rocks. The idea, Levin said, is to consider the spirit in the same way someone would wine.

He relishes being able to introduce aficionados of Old World wines to young U.S. vintners making wines in the Old World style, for instance.  

The goal is to build customers' trust, to be able to say, "If you like this great wine, I highly recommend you try this bottle," Levin said.

2A will stock its share of pricier cru wines, Levin said, but also "will have tons of offerings between $10 and $20," and at varying price points.

He expects to have two openings for the store, the first being strictly for online orders, after the store is stocked, perhaps by late June. The second will be an in-person grand opening that would be weeklong to prevent crowding, a pandemic consideration. The shop also will have curbside pickup.

2A Wine Merchants will post updates on the shop's progress on Instagram, @2Awine.

The Third Ward has two other wine shops with tasting rooms: Vino, 219 E. Erie St., and Thief Wine, 400 N. Water St. in the Milwaukee Public Market.

Contact dining critic Carol Deptolla at carol.deptolla@jrn.com or (414) 224-2841, or through the Journal Sentinel Food & Home page on Facebook. Follow her on Twitter at @mkediner or Instagram at @mke_diner.